Content Snare: Finally End The Website Content Collection Nightmare

By Jennifer Bourn on October 24, 2018

Content Snare helps freelancers and digital agencies get content from their clients on time and in the formats you need, with greater ease and less stress.

I get asked for solution, product, course, service provider, and plugin recommendations all the time and that got me thinking… I should start sharing some of the awesome, quality tools and resources I love — not just in private 1:1 conversations but here on my blog so you can benefit too. Plus, this will give me a handy link to send to someone when they ask me for a recommendation. It’s a win all the way around.

What’s funny is that while James was looking me up and researching Profitable Project Plan, I was researching his product Content Snare and looking him up! I was already planning on reaching out to James, but he beat me to it.

Thankfully when we connected, we were able to block out a large chunk of time to get the podcast interview done and answer all my Content Snare questions at the same time. And, you know those conversations where everything just clicks and it’s easy? That’s how my conversation was with James — if we both weren’t so busy, I think we could have talked all day.

But enough about that. Let’s dive into Content Snare…

What is Content Snare?

Content Snare is software that helps digital agencies get content from their clients with greater ease and less stress.

After hearing so many horror stories about website content from other agencies and freelancers, Content Snare was created to streamline the content gathering process through a step-by-step software system that facilitates the gathering of content in one place and automatically follows up with clients if they’re behind!

Why Use Content Snare?

I’ve been working as a designer for over twenty years and getting content from clients — especially website content — is the worst and most difficult part of the project. And don’t even get me started on the email trails that seem to go on forever. I’m not unique either. Every time you bring up the process of gathering website content from clients in a group of designers and developers you can actually hear a collective groan.

Clients have a hard time getting their website content done, organizing it, and providing it to their designer or developer on time. This usually results in extra project management time, many back-and-forth emails, lots of frustration, project delays, and eroding profit margins, and if not handled with care, it can ruin your chances for a killer testimonial and case study.

I had this realization back in 2011 when I first created my client management system that is now Profitable Project Plan.

I knew content was a problem in many projects and I knew it wasn’t necessarily the client’s fault. What most designers and developers forget is that our clients aren’t copywriters and they don’t build websites often (if ever). They don’t know what they’re doing and writing website content can be intimidating and scary and overwhelming.

This is why I created a system for gathering content using design mockups, content checklists with detailed instructions, content templates for clients to fill in, and even sample content. This system solved almost all of my content woes and honestly, I had never seen a system like the one I created — until I saw Content Snare.

Content Snare mimics my entire website content gathering process that I manually manage but in software. I just about died when I watched the original beta walkthrough video because it was like James and his team read my mind and implemented my system (but in a better way). This is why I was so excited to talk with him about the product.

Here’s the video:

How Content Snare Came To Be

James Rose and his company Aktura Technology have been building software for years and their original idea was to improve the process of writing the creative brief and scope of work. But when they began doing market research, speaking directly with designers and developers, it became painfully clear that the bigger problem and project bottleneck was with content. Nearly every single one agreed the process of gathering content from clients stinks so they dove into the creation of Content Snare.

As a designer, what I really appreciate about this product is that they didn’t do the typical developer thing and just start building. Instead, they mocked up wireframes of their ideas and brought a UX designer onboard who turned the wireframes into complete concepts.

After that, they threw together a landing page with just the design mockup screenshots (in and Airbnb while traveling) and did a pre-launch pitching the idea. The response was overwhelming. Hordes of people responded — all saying they have the same problem.

With an email list growing and some initial pre-sales made to validate the idea, they got down to business building the software.

Content Snare: The First Year

Content Snare has been out in the wild for over a year now, which means that customers have had a chance to use the software to gather content from clients and provide feedback. While they admit to having issues in the early days, things are becoming more streamlined and the product is getting even better.

James and his team don’t develop their product in a vacuum. They prioritize user feedback and really listen to their customers and what they noticed is that some users were having great success and loved Content Snare and others were struggling and ended up cancelling their subscription.

After asking users why they were cancelling and working to get more details about how the software was being used, they realized that the problem wasn’t with the software, it was with the education and onboarding. Those cancelling didn’t setup the software fully, so they weren’t reaping all of the benefits.

The Content Snare team is now focusing more on education and training and making the software even easier to use. They’re building new features into the software as well to include instructions and help text along with the content prompts.

My Favorite Things About Content Snare

As I mentioned earlier, I pretty much fell in love with Content Snare the first time I watched the YouTube video demo. It replicates the entire content collection process that I have been using for the last seven years in a more simple and streamlined way.

Here are some of my favorite Content Snare features:

When creating a request for content, you can include screenshots and images of the approved design mockups to give clients a visual reference for the content they are providing. This also helps ensure the content you get matches the design they approved.

You can add instructions, reminders, and prompts throughout each content request to help the client get their content done easier.

You can create reusable content templates, so you’re not starting from scratch with every new project, which saves a ton of time.

Because you’re managing how the client is providing the content, you’ll receive it neatly organized and in the exact formats you need it. This means adding the content to the website is as easy as copy and pasting.

When the client completes a content request, you can approve it and lock it to prevent your client from changing it once you’ve started adding the content to their website.

You can set limits or parameters on things like image size and text length so your client knows exactly what to provide and you don’t end up having to do extra work you weren’t planning on.

You can review the progress of all outstanding requests in the Content Snare Dashboard and quickly see if any require your attention.

There is automatic client follow up built in. So once you send the client the content request, you can set the software to follow up with the client if they haven’t added any content after X days. Or, if after X days, a client has added content, you can send email A and if the client hasn’t added any content, you can send email B. And, the follow up is rules-based, so you can create as many rules as you want to work however you want.

Not Just For Designers And Developers

While Content Snare was created to help freelance designers and developers and digital agencies gather content from clients, it’s not just for designers and developers. In fact, Content Snare can be used for any situation that requires you to gather content from someone else.

Here are just a few other Content Snare use cases:

Event organizers can use it to gather bios, talk titles, talk descriptions, handouts, photos, and more from speakers.

Virtual assistants can use it to get content from their clients for email newsletters, social media, blog posts, and more.

Marketing firms can use it to collect content from clients for print materials, social media, and marketing campaigns.

Podcast hosts can use it to gather content from guests like bios, social media URLs, history, quotes, favorite books, etc.

Boost Profitability With Content Snare

If you’ve been following my blog, read any of my guest posts on other sites, or have been connected with me through social media for any length of time, you know that maximizing profitability is my top priority after providing an extraordinary client experience.

Reducing administrative time on projects and increasing profits were the catalysts behind the creation of Profitable Project Plan and Content Snare does exactly that.

By managing the content collection process, Content Snare enables you to gather content on time, in an organized fashion, and in the formats you need without stress and without requiring lots of back and forth via email and extra client hand-holding.

Just like the automated client management I teach in Profitable Project Plan, Content Snare is a tool that allows you to request content from your clients and forget about it because it will do the prompting and follow up for you.

Pretty amazing right?! Investing in Content Snare is a total no brainer. So go Check it out!

Some links used on this site are “affiliate links.” If you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

About Jennifer Bourn

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Bourn is founding partner at Bourn Creative, a full service design and development company specializing in WordPress. With twenty years in the industry under her belt, she is an award-winning designer who consults on branding, website strategy, and content strategy. Jennifer speaks often, delivering workshops and keynote presentations, blogs about food and travel at Inspired Imperfection, co-organizes the Sacramento WordPress Meetup and WordCamp Sacramento, and writes often for other websites on freelancing, client services, blogging, marketing, websites, and branding.

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